Lord Scourge leaned against a bulkhead in the tiny ship’s corridor. Half of his attention was on Doc and Kira, the other half on the bounty hunter piloting the ship. He had taken to speaking with her from time to time, conversing with her felt familiar to him. He had spent much of the past years alone and while she kept her comments to a few sarcastic remarks, she was intelligent and listened well.

He turned his attention back to his companions. To their surprise, the mercenary had assumed they would share quarters. While they had not bothered to hide their relationship from him, they had thought it was a secret to everyone else. His lips twisted with amusement, if so the Council is blind. He remembered the first time he saw the spark of their relationship, his amusement faded.

***

The doctor worked furiously running back and forth between his patients. They had fallen back to the spaceport in Anchorhead. He set up a triage center behind the Defender in the open-air hangar. His patients were made up of the civilians that could not make it to their homes or those who chose to stand and fight instead. The group was pinned down by anti-air guns and an army of hardened criminals.

“What the stars are they after?” Captain Nosc asked. She was dressed as the Jedi Master Remi. She was supposed to be a decoy but she was not supposed to be bait.

“My guess is Remi, you better get out of those clothes.” Doc said. Kira shook her head with disgust, the doctor and smuggler had been flirting heavily for the entire mission. “For once, that’s NOT what I meant.” He snapped. His temper was always a little short when there were wounded to attend.

“I better help Scourge.” Kira said apologetically. She turned to Nosc, “He’s right, if they’re after Remi, you don’t want to look like her right now. Go change, then stay here and protect Doc and the wounded.” Kira ran off toward the Sith Lord who despite being overwhelmingly outnumbered was keeping the thugs in a bottleneck at the hangar door. Rusk lay down cover fire.

Lord Scourge fought the seemingly endless wave of thugs and criminals. His Soresu form had improved since he met the Jedi. He had watched her both as a Jedi and as a Sith. She was a gifted duelist, sparring with her gave him insights into martial skills that he had not learned in the more than three centuries before she was born. He saw an opening and switched to Shien form taking down a wave of assailants using their own blasters against them.

Kira arrived, fighting beside him, she could not compare to the Jedi but her abilities were sufficient. The criminal’s numbers began to thin. They soon discovered it was not due to their success; the criminals were allowing someone through.

A powerful Sith and his three apprentices appeared; the wave of thugs parted to let them through then closed behind them. “The Emperor’s Wrath and the Emperor’s Daughter defending the Emperor’s assassin.” Darth Ebon laughed. His mouth formed a rictus in a gruesome parody of mirth. He gestured sending lightning at Kira. She caught the energy with the tip of her lightsaber but the pain sent her staggering backwards. His apprentices rushed forward forcing Scourge and Kira to retreat.

Doc had just finished tending to a moisture farmer with blaster wounds when three Exchange mercenaries unstealthed in behind him. Without hesitation, Doc spun around drawing his blaster and shot the first two thugs before they were fully visible. The third, a giant Nautilan wearing heavy armor slapped his pistol aside. “Where’s the Jedi?” The mercenary demanded knocking Doc off his feet with the butt of his rifle. Doc scuttled backward under the rows of tables set up for patients. The Nautilan followed him laughing. Doc reached the end of the row; his hands scrabbled under a table pulling it over him to use as a shield. The Nautilan laughed again, “I can shoot you through the table little man.”

“Great idea,” Doc said, blasting the Nautilan with a scattergun he had hidden there. The powerful shot sent shrapnel through the table into the alien’s face.* The mercenary went down and did not rise. The doctor stood up grabbing his blaster from where it fell.

Nosc did not like fighting large groups, especially not alone, she used every dirty trick she had to keep the thugs from overwhelming her. Finally, two of the men fell from their wounds; the last, she shot in the face with her scattergun while he was distracted by the loss of his comrades. Doc ran to her side surveying the fight. One of the apprentices was down but now they had changed their tactics trying to separate Scourge and Kira. The Darth had been focusing on Scourge when suddenly he whirled and hit Kira with lightning. Unprepared the lightning picked her up and threw her like a ragdoll, her lightsaber fell from her grasp. The apprentices saw their opportunity and closed in.

Cursing, Lord Scourge leaped over the Darth Ebon and threw his lightsaber at the nearest apprentice. Too intent on the disarmed and wounded Jedi, the apprentice did not see the spinning saber until it was too late. His saber cut down the apprentice and returned to his hand just in time for Scourge to block the Darth’s next attack. The second apprentice still loomed over Kira, Scourge would not be able to save her.

Doc had already started running when he saw Kira go down. He had no idea what he was doing charging a Sith. He tackled the hooded man simultaneously stabbing him in the chest with a syringe. They fell to the ground, Doc backed up quickly, stumbling on the dusty ground, his heart pounding. The apprentice lay frozen by the fast acting paralytic. Doc grabbed Kira under the arms and dragged her toward the triage area. Once there he frantically checked her wounds administering kolto and adrenals. He alternated between checking her pulse and hugging her trying to get her to regain consciousness. Finally, her eyes fluttered open.

“Doc?” Kira asked trying to sit up. Nosc and Doc both held her down. “What happened?”

“I saved your life beautiful,” Doc said trying to keep his voice from shaking. “That means you owe me a date.”